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Required equipment for SD Baking
Jeff Miller wrote:
> an oven rack thermometer > > Eh. I don't see the point, myself. If the bread's not baking through or the > crust isn't dark / crispy / whatever enough, just adjust the dial a bit next > time. > Oven thermostats, to be kind, suck rocks. Most are off by considerable amounts, and many vary. So, you set your oven to 350F and the next think you know, your bread has turned to mahogany (the phrase one of my employees used to describe the bread when he burned it. He's a used car salesman now.) The oven shoots to 500, drops to 250, and then climbs to 450. I've seen oven temperatures fluctuate all over the place. Using an oven thermometer lets you know what is really happening, and when you need to call the repairman. Mike -- Mike Avery mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com part time baker ICQ 16241692 networking guru AIM, yahoo and skype mavery81230 wordsmith A Randomly Selected Thought For The Day: Don't worry if you're a kleptomaniac, you can always take something for it. |
Required equipment for SD Baking
"Mike Avery" > wrote in message news:mailman.7.1176482550.1838.rec.food.sourdough@ mail.otherwhen.com... > Using an oven thermometer lets you know what is really happening, and > when you need to call the repairman. Where is the FAQ that tells how to find a repairman for oven thermostats? |
Required equipment for SD Baking
"Mike Avery" > wrote in message news:mailman.7.1176482550.1838.rec.food.sourdough@ mail.otherwhen.com... > Oven thermostats, to be kind, suck rocks. Most are off by considerable > amounts, and many vary. The kind I have in my old Kenmore gas range is very reliable, and quite accurate, and, if not, is adjustable, though it has been difficult to find out how it works and how it is adjusted. Furthermore, it has required, at rather long intervals, to be disassembled for the purpose of cleaning its set of electrical contacts. I found out by asking questions at r.f.s. that it, generically, is a "millivolt control" which means it relies on current generated by a pilot-flame-heated thermocouple to actuate the solenoid that opens the gas valve when a heating cycle is called for. The regulation is quite fast, with the on-off cycles lasting about 10 seconds at bread-baking temperatures, and so precise that the fluctuation could not be noticed with a conventional oven thermometer (though amounting to several Fahrenheit degrees when recorded with a thermocouple thermometer). There is no doubt that the recorded temperature depends on where in the oven the temperature sensor is placed. The opinion of the repair man is that the stove is too old and should be replaced. I think it was made in the 1950's. It is quite likely that the elements of the thermostat could not be replaced. For one thing, the thermal sensor is probably based on the expansion of liquid mercury, which is abhorred by the protectors of the environment (who, incidentally, do not know shit about protecting against carbon and military). So it goes! -- Dicky |
Required equipment for SD Baking
"Dick Adams" > wrote in message ... "Mike Avery" > wrote in message news:mailman.7.1176482550.1838.rec.food.sourdough@ mail.otherwhen.com... > Oven thermostats, to be kind, suck rocks. Most are off by considerable > amounts, and many vary. The kind I have in my old Kenmore gas range is very reliable, and quite accurate, and, if not, is adjustable, though it has been difficult to find out how it works and how it is adjusted. Furthermore, it has required, at rather long intervals, to be disassembled for the purpose of cleaning its set of electrical contacts. I found out by asking questions at r.f.s. that it, generically, is a "millivolt control" which means it relies on current generated by a pilot-flame-heated thermocouple to actuate the solenoid that opens the gas valve when a heating cycle is called for. The regulation is quite fast, with the on-off cycles lasting about 10 seconds at bread-baking temperatures, and so precise that the fluctuation could not be noticed with a conventional oven thermometer (though amounting to several Fahrenheit degrees when recorded with a thermocouple thermometer). There is no doubt that the recorded temperature depends on where in the oven the temperature sensor is placed. The opinion of the repair man is that the stove is too old and should be replaced. I think it was made in the 1950's. It is quite likely that the elements of the thermostat could not be replaced. For one thing, the thermal sensor is probably based on the expansion of liquid mercury, which is abhorred by the protectors of the environment (who, incidentally, do not know shit about protecting against carbon and military). So it goes! -- Dicky Just how is an oven thermometer tested for accuracy and repeatability and if it's off how is it calibrated ? Bill |
Required equipment for SD Baking
"bill" > wrote in message ... > Just how is an oven thermometer tested for accuracy and > repeatability and if it's off how is it calibrated ? A glass thermometer with a mercury column can be a fine temperature standard provided it is properly calibrated by its manufacturer. Such could be used from time to time to check the accuracy of an ordinary (bimetallic) oven thermometer, which is a more practical device inasmuch as a glass thermometer is hard to read through an oven door. A more elegant solution for studying oven temperature is a thermocouple thermometer calibrated at two points, like melting ice in distilled water at known atmospheric pressure, and melting pure metal, like bismuth or tin. Of course, you would probably want also to use a data-logging device if you went that far. For most people, the most practical solution would be to note the thermostat setting that does the job best, and use that setting. Not to worry until a poor result is got. -- Dicky |
Required equipment for SD Baking
> Dick Adams wrote:
> [...] > A more elegant solution for studying oven temperature is a > thermocouple thermometer calibrated at two points, like > melting ice in distilled water at known atmospheric pressure, > and melting pure metal, like bismuth or tin. Of course, you > would probably want also to use a data-logging device if > you went that far. > [...] If you want to be fanatic about it [not that anyone on this list would do that ;-) ] you can order an Omega Engineering catalog and find multichannel thermocouple dataloggers with certified stainless-encased probes for $200 US up to $3000. But the interesting thing to me is that as far as I can tell the $50-$100 thermocouple thermometers being sold in kitchen stores today are basically the industrial/lab thermometers of 10 years ago with less rugged packaging and fewer features. I know back in the 80s we would have been quite happy in our process plant chem lab with the units that the kitchen catalogs sell for $50 today. sPh |
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